The Usual Suspects?
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: i actually haven't figured out the stories name yet- Ichigo had to leave behind the world that she knew. Her family and friends and even her comrades were lost to her. And then she picked up a weird stalked wearing a freaky orange mask and a whole bunch of other things happened too. Fem Ichigo/Gaara maybe?
1. Chapter 1

Stupid Soul Society.

Stupid thousand year war.

Stupid- _Stupid_ God! Ichigo thought as she put on another burst of speed and had to fight herself to keep from flinching as the icy wind slapped at her already cold flesh. If the damned war had never happened, she wouldn't have obtained the power of a god. And then Soul Society wouldn't have tried to capture her and seal her away.

As it was already, she no longer knew if her friends or family were safe once she departed her former world in lieu of this, strange new one.

She hadn't even been in this world a damned month and she was already in trouble again. Some weird guy with funny scarlet eyes with strange symbols or something surrounding the pupils had caught onto her while she had been laying low in a local village.

In her defense though, he probably wouldn't have figured out that there was something off about her if she hadn't of been attacked by human traffickers and fought back.

And yeah, she maybe shouldn't have used a small bit of her 'godly' power to skin the guys alive. But they were capturing and selling young girls and women into prostitution and worse. They deserved it! Didn't they? After all the senseless abduction, selling, _rape_ and torture of innocent girls was hardly anything for a guy to be proud of.

Especially when it went a long way to prove just how _weak_ a guy was.

Men were supposed to protect women! Or at least they were supposed to in her opinion. Still the fact remained, that if she hadn't have used her power, even a little bit, she might not now be on the run in some frozen wasteland. She had started getting sick days ago, and now, she was certain that she was running a fever. Add that to the fact that she'd barely slept and hadn't been able to eat anything much less hold it down, in days.

And she knew that she would inevitably weaken to the point of collapse.

In fact, that was what she most feared at the moment. That and being captured by the guy with the weird eyes. Freezing to death was closing in at a close third right along with frostbite.

She wasn't a hundred percent sure, but she thought that at least two of her toes had already turned black and fallen off and then regenerated only to turn black and fall off again. It might have been funny if it hadn't have freaked her out so badly the first time.

Of course part of the reason it had freaked her out so badly was because she had stopped to take a rest and had started to rub her toes to get the blood circulating in them again when they had snapped off in her hand.

She'd stared at the blackened pieces of decaying flesh for several heartbeats before she'd screamed so loudly that she was certain that any wildlife and people for miles had probably mistaken her for a Bigfoot or something and quickly fled the general vicinity in abject terror.

Of course that had been nearly three in a half days ago.

Since then she'd lost her nose, part of an ear, several fingers- all of which she had regenerated easily enough, but her power reserves were running dangerously low. She needed someplace safe to rest and soon. Otherwise the next time she deiced to stop and rest, that weirdo following her might actually manage to catch her.

Up ahead she could see a large clearing with a big, three- no four story white stone building in the middle of it. Skidding to a stop, she moved to hide herself behind some trees well out of sight and peeked out to see if it was suitable to hide in.

The place had multiple people samurai armor guarding it.

At least twenty or more if the numbers she counted were right. But then there could always be more people guarding the building from the inside. And while she didn't think any of them would be a problem for her to handle if it really came down to it, she really didn't want to hurt someone for doing their job if she could help it.

Then again, that was only assuming that these samurai guys were friendly-ish. If they weren't she'd deal with them accordingly. It didn't mean that she had to _like_ it though.

Careful not to get herself spotted, she checked several different routes of entry. Each one was guarded by three or more men. All of whom were armed with swords, spears, and bows and arrows.

Nothing to be overly concerned about since her speed and skill far outweighed their own. Finally after several minutes, she found her way inside and used a small portion of her power to cause a distraction knowing that enough of the men would go to check out the source of the disturbance and leave one of the entry ways open.

Once some of the men moved away from the building and the others had their back turned to the door, she darted out of her hiding place and put on as much speed as she could. Just barely managing to slip past several of the men and far enough into the building where they shouldn't be able to see, hear nor sense her.

After she was certain that she was far enough away, she left the main hall and disappeared down a side hall that led deeper into the building where she could vaguely make out the sound of several different voices. Ducking down so that she wouldn't be seen by anyone in the room below the balcony she had just come to, she tried not to eavesdrop on the people speaking, but it was sort of hard not too.

The conversation was oddly interesting. Plus she was pretty tired.

Totally exhausted really.

Sighing softly in defeat, she dropped down to the floor and placed her back against the small stone wall and made herself as comfortable as she could in her wet, freezing, clothing and shoes and let herself close her eyes just for a minute. Unaware of the fact that she went from wide awake to unconscious in the span of zero point two seconds flat.

* * *

Kankuro and Temari both frowned at their little brother, and Kage, Garra as he tilted his head to the side again and appeared as if he were trying to either hear something or...well, they weren't exactly sure just _what_ he was doing really. He was acting as if he were sensing something close by that they couldn't while somehow managing to juggle a conversation between himself and the rest of the highly volatile Kage's present.

Someone said something, causing Garra to react by countering their argument with one of his own before tilting his head again. His carefully masked expression slipping ever so slightly as one of the Kage, Killer Bee's older brother slammed his fist down on his table and startled everyone close to him before snapping at Garra to pay fucking attention to his betters.

Garra said nothing in response, though he did make a point to ignore the man for several heartbeats before Temari managed to ask him what was wrong at the same time his pale aqua colored eyes flickered someplace overhead before coming to rest on the orange masked figure wearing a black and red cloud print cloak before slowly saying, "We have company."

* * *

She was there. The child-god.

She was powerful. Perhaps even more _powerful_ than all of the Jinchuuriki combined. So much so that he could sense her. She was so _close_.

She probably thought that she would escape him by coming here and asking for help from the Kage's. Chit, she wouldn't escape him. The Kage's wouldn't be able to save her regardless of what happened here today.

She would be his.

The child-god. And once he had her, he would find a way to take her power for his own and become the new god of the shinobi world.

He was so wrapped up in his own mind that he nearly missed one of the Kage's standing up, outrage and fury bleeding from every pore in his skin and demanding what he wanted. Canting his head slightly, he demanded. "Where is she?"

Every male in the room below him quickly looked to every female among them with a funny confused look on his face.

Rolling his eye in exasperation he tried again, "The child-god. I know that she's here. I tracked her inside of the building. I know that she came here to ask you all for help. Now where is she? Where did you hide her?"

"We don't know what you're talking about," One of the older Kage's shouted at him. "No one has come here!"

"Liar! I followed her in. I've been tracking her since she revealed herself as something more than human. She has power. A far greater power than that of the Jinchuuriki. _I want her._ You will hand her over to me."

"There is no one here that-"

_"You will be silent,"_ Tobu said in a tone that was dripping with venom and arrogance before he then said, "I know that you have her here. You will give her to me or I will _slaughter_ you all where you stand."


	2. Chapter 2

Ichigo woke up with a frown. Her head was pounding, she could barely catch her breath, her stomach was churning dangerously, and she felt simultaneously both_ hot_ and_ cold_. Both sweating and freezing so badly that she was shaking from it so hard that her teeth were chattering.

Taking a moment to shake off the odd wave of dizziness that was threatening to cause her to collapse and just lay there until she dies. However the loud drone of voices, send a jolt of panic through her.

Not enough to send her scurrying for cover, but definitely enough to worry her into staying put long enough to see what the hell was going on.

Carefully reaching up over her head she pulled herself up into a better position and cautiously peeked over the top of the small wall that she had previously been resting again and felt her eyes widen in alarm at what she saw.

A group of close to fifteen or more people facing down her stalker.

"No, no, no, no-" She muttered to herself in a whisper tone. They should run. Dear god why weren't they running?! She wondered tiredly as her eyes flickered back and forth between the group and the guy in the mask as she caught little bits and pieces of their conversation.

Well, it wasn't exactly a conversation, per se, it was more like..._unhappy_ shouting. Really, really unhappy shouting. She listened for a few moments longer before the guy threatened to slaughter the group. At which point her mind had stalled almost completely.

Between her being pursued, ill, and running an impossibly high fever- she'd probably lost her damned mind. That was the only thing that she could think of as she slowly got to her feet and practically flung herself over the small wall and let herself freefall for several moments before twisting around and landing hard on her feet between the masked guy and the group.

The impact of which caused her to bite down on her tongue hard enough to taste blood as she slowly stood to her full height and glared at the guy as she mustered what was left of her waning strength and summoned Zanketsu into physical form in her hand and waited for a heartbeat or two.

Mask guy was doing a little happy dance above her, he was so thrilled to see her.

The bastard.

Whereas the group...was strangely silent for a moment before all hell broke loose. Several people all shouting in alarm at the same moment while she tried desperately to keep herself from _cringing_ at the sheer volume of their voices.

"I knew it! I knew it! I knew that they hid you from me!" Masked guy yelled as he pointed at her. She rolled her eyes for a second before snapping,

"They didn't hide me, you moron! I was taking a damned nap!" Masked guy stopped yelling for a moment as if he were mulling over her words, causing her to defensively say, "What? Being on the run from a psychopath would tire _anybody_ out!"

"Well it doesn't matter either way," Masked guy said after a moment or two of silence. "I still plan to slaughter the Kage's and take you so that I can rip you're power from you and become the new god of this world."

"Blah, blah, blah, my dick is bigger than yours. Honestly do you bad guys ever bother to think of more original material? I've heard the same words you just spouted spoken a hundred times before. Besides, you won't be killing anyone here today."

"Oh? And just how are you going to stop me?"

"Bitch please, just because I'm sick doesn't mean that I'm weak and totally worthless in a fight, _yet_." Ichigo said as she disappeared suddenly and reappeared next to the guy and reared back her arm and then slammed her fist into the side of his head and sent him crashing through the stone wall twenty feet away before turning to the group and calling out, "Hey, you guys need to get the hell out of here!"

Snapping out of their funk the guy with dark skin and pale blond hair suddenly shouted back, "Who are you? What are you doing in here?"

"God save me from fools." She muttered as the masked guy finally managed to shake off the bits and pieces of crumbled concrete from his person and get back to his feet and pulled a knife and was advancing on her as she yelled back, "_I said_ _leave, baka!_" Subconsciously using her 'god' voice on them.

The tone of which was said to be akin to listening to the deafening roar of an enraged dragon.

The sound was so loud that everyone quickly stopped what they were doing so that they could cover their ears in alarm as the very ground that the building stood on shook violently beneath their feet. Which was a mite funny- sort of. Funny because the masked guy was practically tripping over his own feet and flopping into the walls and stuff.

But she supposed that it wasn't so funny for the others. After all, they probably thought that the building was about to come crashing down on all of their heads.

Once the sound finally faded, Ichigo looked bemusedly at the masked guy whom at some point or another had stabbed himself a time or two with his knife and was none too pleased about it, as he got back to his feet and began limping towards her this time.

She'd say this for the guy. He was one _determined_ son of a bitch.

Luckily for her, the second he was close enough- she distracted him by smiling sweetly and then kicked the shit out of his injured leg. Right in the knife wound.

Mask guy screamed and went down at which time she lifted Zangetsu over her head and then brought it down it a slashing motion at his other leg. Figuring that if she crippled him now, then he wouldn't be able to come after her again even if he tried however her zanbaktou went right through him as he growled out a threat to return to finish what he started and then disappeared.

"Damn." She muttered before letting Zangetsu disappear and then turned to go check on the others when she ran into something and fell on her butt with an indignant squeak before glancing up at whatever it was to find that it was one of the people from the group.

A tall guy wearing black and weird purple face paint.

"Um..h-hello?"

"Are you okay?" The guy asked curiously.

She didn't bother responding vocally this time, instead she just nodded as the guy held out a gloved hand to help her up. "Come on kid, everyone has some questions for you."

Ichigo groaned and just took his hand and let him pull her up off of the floor and onto her feet before she asked in a slightly hopeful/pleading tone, "I don't suppose everyone will want to be friends and just let me leave?"

The guy gave her a calculating look that quickly turned to something else. Pity maybe? Before he bothered to reply with, "Just answer their questions honestly and everything should be fine."

"What if I don't know or understand something?"

He blinked in surprise at that. Obviously that possibility never even crossed his mind. _Great_, She thought sourly as she let him lead her back to where the others were still standing.

The moment she was within screaming distance, the big guy from before- Mr. One armed Wonder- pointed at her and practically screamed in her face. "You! Who are you? Where are you from?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, sir." She said politely- if a little bit dazedly despite the fact that the tone of his voice was making her head hurt more than before, and gave her the weird feeling that her ears were about to start bleeding.

"And what nation do you hail from, Ichigo Kurosaki?" An pretty woman with long red hair, in her late to early thirties asked.

"I...don't really know miss. I've only been in this country for about two in a half months."

"Are you a shinobi?"

"I'm sorry? What?"

"A ninja girl. Are you a ninja? And if so what country did you come from?" The elder demanded.

"_No_. Not a ninja. And again I don't know."

"I think that you're lying. Aren't you brat?" One Arm snapped angrily causing Ichigo to visibly bristle.

"Well, I think that you're incredibly rude. And don't know me well enough to determine if I'm lying or not. Simply saying it _doesn't_ make it true. Especially since you're a very hostile person who is bordering on bloodthirsty," Ichigo snapped back at One Arm, causing the guy to sputter in outrage while everyone else stood around flat out _gaping_ at her in disbelief as she then tacked on. "If you want to shed blood so damned badly, take it from someone else. I already have _one_ psychopath after me, I don't want or need more."

"Why you-" One Arm snarled as he started towards her. Ichigo's eyes widened slightly in alarm and she subconsciously drew on her new power and raised a hand and slowly curled her fingers into a fist. Willing her power to press down on One Arm until he fell to his knees as she spun on her heel and quickly moved far, far away from his reach before spitting,

"_Hot head_, you'll stay there, on your knees, until you either cool your temper. Or I decide to let you up."

"W-What did you do to me?" One Arm demanded in a shaky tone. Obviously internally freaked out by the fact that he couldn't move.

"Nothing physically. Not really anyways," Ichigo said, temporarily forgetting the others in the room. "Abilities like this one is something that draws on a person's will. Turns out that between mine and yours, mine is greater. You'll be able to get up again as soon as you either cool your temper, or I let you up."

One Arm glared at her murderously and she just sighed.

She could tell that it was going to be a really, really long day from this point on.


	3. Chapter 3

"Psst, Gaara. Does the kid remind you of anyone?" Kankuro asked in a whispered tone as the Mizukage moved closer to the girl and reached out with a curious expression on her face, and very gently so as not to startle her- took a strand of the girl's long oddly colored strawberry blond-orange silken hair between her fingers and made a low cooing sound. Causing the girl to stiffen up and let out a squeak as she twisted her head around to see what she was doing.

Garra was staring at the girl as if she were a puzzle that he longed to solve when it occurred to him that she sort of reminded him of Naruto. His friend from Konoha, and fellow jinchuuriki.

Everything from how the girl spoke, to how she moved, to the power that she seemed to wield as easily as she breathed- was all _eerily_ similar to Naruto. So much so that Gaara almost groaned out the words, "Another one?" However managed to bite his tongue at the last moment to keep from actually saying it.

Because one insanely powerful person running amok was enough in his opinion.

And yet...

The universe seemed to deem it necessary to drop another into his lap. _Fantastic_. He thought to himself as he watched, and yet managed to tune out the peculiar argument that sparked between the girl and the Mizukage.

The Mizukage was of the opinion that the girl could be a lost relative of the Uzumaki. But Gaara didn't think this was so. He was fairly certain that if it was, then Naruto would have found her by now. And god help anyone that _dared_ to stand in his way because he would bloody someone up if he didn't flat out decide to kill them first.

After all, coming between a shinobi and their family- even long lost relations- was a terrible idea of absolutely _epic_ proportions.

Especially when someone with the name Uzumaki was involved.

Deciding to step in and save the girl from the Mizukage before their argument got any more out of hand- honestly how did an argument de-evolve into hair pulling and yelling insults at each other anyways?- Gaara flared his chakra a little bit and directed his sand towards the two females so that his sand would separate them before they _actually_ came to blows.

Once the two were separated Gaara moved to place himself between the two before they could lunge at each other or something and said softly, "Enough. You are both adults of your respectful village's, act like it." The Mizukage huffed and stalked off, leaving the girl with him.

She tried to finger comb her the snared out of her hair from having the Mizukage grab it by the fist full and glanced up at him from underneath her lashes. On most females, the look she was giving him would look seductive. But Gaara could easily tell that she wasn't attempting such a thing. She was more interested in studying him than seducing him.

It was probably just as well. He was useless with romantic gestures anyways.

Finally the girl seemed to figure out what she was going to say to him. To be honest, he expected her to say something rude about his hair or something. He expected_ all_ kinds of things but what actually left her mouth- those, simple words just absolutely floored him.

"You have pretty eyes." He stared at her for a heartbeat or so- waiting for her to tack on the words, 'They'd look pretty in a jar'- or something. However when she didn't tack on anything else, he felt his face begin to unwillingly flush under the surprising compliment.

In truth the only people that ever said such things to him and meant it were his siblings and..._Naruto_. He never believed anyone else who said such things because it sounded more like empty flattery in an attempt to get close to him because of his position as the Kazekage or because of his abilities as a Jinchuuriki.

Well, _former_ Jinchuuriki now.

Still, his point was valid.

Which was what caused him to cut a slightly panicked look towards his two siblings. Kankuro was grinning like a moron, making him want to throttle that damned grin right off of his face. And Temari...was weirdly shell shocked by the peculiar exchange.

Otherwise she'd be storming over and knocking the girl through the nearest wall with her giant fan. Still some small part of him felt that they should be _saving_ him and not simply standing around observing his interaction with the girl. Until it dawned on him...they weren't just observing, they were actually studying the girl and her interactions with everyone to deem if she was hostile or not.

The compliment must have thrown him more than he thought for him to forget something so significant.

"You're not hostile at all are you?" He asked as he felt his curiosity piqued by her. The girl turned her head to look at him, her expression startled, her eerie turquoise colored eyes wide.

"N-No." She finally stammered out before taking a step or so back from him nervously. He tilted his head ever so slightly and regarded her with a calculating look. Trying to determine whether or not she was lying.

He needn't have bothered.

He could already tell that she wasn't. In fact she hadn't lied to any of them even once since they had started to bombard her with their questions. _How...peculiar. _He thought to himself.

In the life of a shinobi, lying and deception was a way of life. It was as natural as breathing. And often meant all the difference between life and death. So the concept of someone like the girl- Ichigo Kurosaki- coming out of the flipping woodworks and being nothing _but_ totally honest with them was nothing short of a novel experience.

No wonder she reminded him so much of Naruto.

The blond was much the same way.

"Maybe you are an Uzumaki..." He muttered watching her reaction to his words closely and almost grinned when she audibly squeaked at which point Temari laughed softly before saying aloud.

"She's adorable. Can we keep her?"

"I'm with Temari," Kankuro said with another grin. "We _need_ to keep her." Understanding Kankuro and Temari's words loud and clear, Gaara nodded his head in agreement.

Non hostile, Akutsuki stalking her, equaled protective custody.

Ichigo Kurosaki was now (and possibly _forever_) under the protection of himself, his siblings and his village.

Was it weird that he wanted to curl up in a ball somewhere private and whimper pitifully?


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry about the short chap- it's sort of a filler.**

* * *

It wasn't long after he and his siblings had come to the conclusion and declared that they needed to_ keep_ the girl, that she collapsed. Which wouldn't have been so very worrying if not for the fact that it became apparent the second that his arms shot out to catch her- that something was very seriously wrong.

In truth he had never expected to learn that she was ill.

In fact, it alarmed him just how _sick_ she was the moment that he had her in his arms. He could practically feel how weak she was in her current state and- he wasn't sure what alarmed him more. The fact that she had fought off a deranged lunatic in such a sick and weakened state?

Or the _implications_ of the fact that she had fought off an impossibly powerful opponent while not even at full strength. Lifting his eyes from her face to look over at the Raikage, _whom was still on his knees_ and then looked back down to the girl with a frown.

In all honesty, either one was terrifying to him for various reasons. Which was perfectly understandable.

What wasn't understandable as of yet, was just how powerful the girl had to be to be able to do the things that she had done- especially in her condition. For the moment though, she would bear watching.

"Tsuchikage, do you have a medical team among you're traveling companions?" He asked after a moment or so. Kankuro and Temari were starting to crowd him a little bit. He hadn't really noticed them before due to his thoughts. But he was starting to notice them now.

Kankuro was practically leaning against his back and Temari was peeking over one of his shoulders in an effort to see for herself what was wrong with the girl.

"I don't see any injuries..." She muttered after a moment or so.

"She had to have snuck in here sometimes after our arrival. And it is cold outside. What if she's hypothermic?" Kankuro asked. His tone curious.

"I doubt that she would have been able to fight, much less function if that were the case." Temari chided.

"I wouldn't be so sure. I ran into some rogue nins once that could shove aside physical agony, and illness after suffering extreme shifts in the environment and becoming sick- and they could_ function_ just fine." Kankuro said with a frown as he regarded the girl worriedly as the Tsuchikage's medical nins appeared and collected the girl from Garra's arms and laid her down on the floor several feet away and began to treat her.

They were quiet for several moments- until one of them felt the need to practically shout- "What the hell is this?!" drawing everyone's attention as he started to catalog the girl's illness and injuries.

"Multiple broken bones, contusions, fractures, healing ruptured organs, some internal bleeding in the abdomen and chest. Fluid in her lungs, her fever is far too high-"

"There are traces of frostbite and hypothermia too." The other medic said.

"Tissue damage in the feet, legs, arms, hands, fingers- _even her heart is damaged_! And she even fought in this condition? How the hell is this kid even still alive?! She has to be in excruciating pain. How did she even manage to find the strength to stand, much less fight or function? This is absolutely unbelievable!" The first medic practically shouted again.

"Uh...w-will she be okay?" Kankuro asked, his curiosity piqued a little bit at the list of injuries that the girl had.

"She'll need a lot of treatment- and many of her injuries are consistent with war injuries and even torture- but yes. She should survive as long as she gets some rest and gives her fever enough time to break." One of the medics said before the other made a comment about her being some sort of monster.

Gaara watched and listened to the two medics, uncertain about whether or not he should say or ask anything in regards to being able to gauge her true strength. As medical nins, the two should have been able to feel something in regards to her strength and should be able to give a fair or accurate assessment. However if he was right about her- then saying or asking for such a thing would automatically make her a coveted weapon in the eyes of the others.

They would take her, strip her of her rights as a person and keep her in chains until she was broken and either destroyed them in an effort to escape them or she gave in to their desires to use her power for themselves.

Both would be bad, especially with war looming in the immediate future.

And handing her over to the mad man from earlier would simply get them all killed and their villages wiped out. So Gaara decided to keep his mouth shut and make a mental note to do a few tests on her later on within the confines of his village to see if she could be useful as an ally.

He would also have to contact Naruto and inform him of the possibility of a living relation and see if he could come to the village and _help_ them with the girl.


	5. Chapter 5

**Happy belated Christmas/New Year everyone! **

**I wrote this instead of sleeping so I don't know if it makes any sense. But I did try...**

* * *

It took almost four days days of almost constant medical care before Ichigo was even remotely considered able to travel. And by then, the medical nins were absolutely _exhausted_. Their usually carefully maintained chakra had practically been siphoned from them just to help the healing process begin and continue at a steady rate.

She had slept the entire time. Which, coupled with her injuries was a matter of considerable concern to Garra who had occasionally taken up sitting by her bedside just to keep watch over her condition. And when he wasn't with the girl, one of his siblings were.

He, his siblings- and of course the other Kages had agreed that if Madara wanted the girl- he would damn well have to _crawl_ over their damned corpses just to get to her. Because they weren't about to simply hand him someone so powerful, and certainly not without one hell of a fight first.

The possibility that she could be used as a weapon by the man was simply to great to ignore.

Once Ichigo was deemed well enough for travel, Garra began to painstaking preparation's that it would take just to move the unconscious girl since neither he nor his siblings could simply carry her back home.

So after giving Kankuro some money and instructions, he sent him out to buy a small carriage and a horse or two as well as some warm blankets a comfortable pillow ect… Since Ichigo was still unwell and needed to travel by carriage, then he at least wanted to make sure that she was comfortable and didn't suffer any further harm.

He supposed that he felt sympathy for her because of some of her injuries.

Frostbite was nothing to joke about. And neither were her other injuries either. And the list _was_ extensive even by a shinobi's standards.

Frankly after formally announcing that the girl would be his/his sibling's _ward_ for the foreseeable future to the other Kage's- which had been extremely difficult for a multitude of reasons, several of which had nearly brought him and the Raikage to blows- Gaara wasn't all that sure how the girl had managed to move, much less _fight_ or even _function_.

Once things had been settled with the other Kage and he had made it abundantly clear to the Raikage that _no_, the girl would not be treated as a weapon nor a prisoner of war, and anyone treating her as such while she was under his care would die screaming- he'd gone to check on her and had asked the medics present while treating her about her health.

The list of injuries that they had mentioned to him once they had had more time to look her over had been shocking to say the least. As well as stomach turning. From the way that the medical nin's had spoken the girl had been abused severely. Tortured in some of the most brutal and inhumane ways possibly imaginable.

And- And knowing this had both _hurt_ for some unknown and indecipherable reason, and stirred a great deal of empathy within him. He didn't know how she had managed to come so far with such agonizing injuries, but he couldn't help but feel grateful to her for managing despite the pain of it all.

After all, without her presence, he and the others- his siblings and the other Kage's very well may have _died_ in their confrontation with Madara. It didn't matter to him that Madara had followed her to their present location.

As far as he was concerned it would have only been a matter of time before Madara had showed his face to the lot of them anyways. He did seem more than a little bit..._unhinged_. Which was good to know since it meant that they now had some small piece of intel on him that could help them in defeating him.

Sighing softly as he studied Ichigo's sleeping face, he wondered who she was. Like, really. Who was she? What village did she hail from? Did she have a family? Was her family dead? Did she have any friends, neighbors, or even a lover or children that might miss her?

He wished that he knew so that he could plan to remove anything and anyone that could potentially be used against her as leverage later on. He may not know her, but she simply seemed like the type that cared deeply about those that she was attached too. And she would probably try to protect those attachments in some grand and insanely noble fashion.

Like...Naruto.

Sighing again, he wondered if the message that he'd sent to the Leaf village, informing Tsunade of Naruto's possible 'relative' had made it to it's destination yet. He was leaning more towards no at the moment since Naruto wasn't tearing apart the countryside just to hunt him down. But since he wasn't in specific part of the country just yet...there was really no way to tell for sure.

He just hoped that his friend didn't get too excited.

Ichigo was going to need some serious down time to get well again and it wouldn't do well for her to be overwhelmed too much. She was going to likely be very upset about the circumstances that she would find herself in upon awakening anyways. There was no need to compound that if he could avoid it.

As it was, he was already trying to figure out how to stop her if she decided to try and escape him. He already knew from how things had gone with Madara that he would have to _really_ watch himself with her. She was apparently no slouch in a fight. And despite the fact that she had told them that she wasn't a ninja...he couldn't help but wonder what kind of training she must have been given.

To wield a weapon like the massive sword that she'd had before, especially something that she could materialize out of thin air- she had to have some sort of formal training. What kind though, was enough to give him a migraine. Especially since there were so many fighting styles and different forms of training that it was nigh on impossible to pin down her particular style easily.

He hadn't seen enough to really get a good feel for her defensive and combative abilities. But he knew that from what he had seen...she had some sort of training. She simply had too. No one could move like she had without training. At least...no one that he knew of anyways.

Ichigo let out a soft groan, drawing him from his thoughts as she slowly turned onto her side underneath the small pile of blankets that had been piled on top of her so that she was lying facing him. He watched her face carefully for any signs of pain or discomfort and was only vaguely relieved to find none for the moment.

Though she did crack an eye open for a moment to look at him before rasping out, "Everything okay?"

He found it strangely comforting that even now, in her present condition, she worried about him and the others. The question was also very telling as to what sort of person she really was, and caused his lips to quirk a little bit as amusement slithered through his mind.

Kankuro was right. She _was_ just like Naruto.

He wasn't sure if he found this fact to be eandearing or terrifying at the moment. So he simply let things be. She was in no condition to really do anything if something was actually wrong anyways. Not that he doubted that she wouldn't try _something_. Still...his point stood.

Reaching out, he gently tugged the blankets that had slipped from her shoulder, back into place as he simply replied. "Everything is fine."

She stared at him for a moment or so longer, almost as if she were trying to gauge whether or not he was telling her the truth but inevitably made a soft humming sound before telling him to wake her up if anything happened, however was asleep again before he could promise her anything.


End file.
